Washington University stops using cats for training in pediatrics program

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Washington University stops using cats for training in pediatrics program

ST. LOUIS, MO (KTVI) – Washington University just ended the practice of using live cats and ferrets for training in its pediatrics program. They were the last pediatrics program in the U.S. known to use animals. Residents at Washington University were instructed to force tubes down the throats of cats and ferrets.

The Physicians Committee, a national nonprofit of 12,000 concerned physicians, says in the release that they applaud the university’s decision. Washington University tells the Physicians Committee that They are looking, “for adoptive ‘parents’ for the cats.”

Washington University announced in 2013 that it would stop using cats for the same procedure in a different course. In addition, the Department of Defense ended the use of animals in pediatrics residency courses and neonatal resuscitation training as of Jan. 1, 2015.

Now all of the 198 U.S. pediatrics programs surveyed by the Physicians Committee use only non-animal, human-based education methods